July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Foie gras producers in the U.S. and
Canada, joined by a restaurant group, sued California to block
enforcement of the nation’s first state law banning sales of
duck liver.

The complaint, filed yesterday in federal court in Los
Angeles, seeks to stop a law passed in 2004 that went into
effect July 1. Animal-rights advocates say force-feeding ducks
and geese with a tube inserted in the esophagus to fatten their
livers is cruel.

The ban on foie gras, the French name of the delicacy, was
signed into law by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Enforcement was postponed for almost eight years to allow
producers to find an alternative to force-feeding. No substitute
method has come to light.

The law bans force-feeding of ducks or geese to make foie
gras and forbids selling foie gras produced that way. Violators
can be fined as much as $1,000 a day.

Nicholas Pacilio, a spokesman for California Attorney
General Kamala Harris, declined to comment on the lawsuit.